Category Archives: Keep Calm and Teach On

Most teachers get a week or two off for spring break. I got three and a half weeks and counting!

I’m at a year round school which sounds terrible but it just means our summer break just gets broken up during the school year. I find that it’s a lot easier for me physically and emotionally to have frequent breaks rather than one long summer but that’s just me.

Our family did a lot during the break. We visited more family down in Southern California, we went on a cruise for the first time, and got our first stamps in our passports!

I even worked at Silicon Valley Comic Con!

I have met a lot of celebrities but rarely am I tongue tied. I stopped in my tracks when I saw the cast of Sesame Street and David Newell of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood! I’ve known them all of my life and it was a pleasure to be able to share that they have helped shape who I am today. If you ever get a chance to meet one of them, they will tell you that they never get tired of hearing stories of their viewers.

Of all the traveling we did and all of the people I’ve met, perhaps the biggest impact on my well being was the fact that I did not work a single day of my break… that has not happened in a couple of years. I went from being a stay at home mom, to working part time (but really full since I kept subbing when I was off), to working full time plus extra since I subbed when I was off! I love this direction that my career has taken and am happy to sub for my colleagues but damn, this feels good. I’ll savor every moment until I go back to work on Thursday.

I didn’t always want to be a teacher. Like every other youth in my family I thought I’d go pre-med or go to dentistry school like my cousin who is also a USF alum. After turning eighteen and partying it up in the city, my grades suffered. But not all of my grades.

My savior in the form of Professor Marty (erm, I can’t remember his last name right now) took a chance on me and spoke to the Dean on my behalf. He explained that I was, in short, a good kid and deserved a second chance because I was getting an A in his class. The Dean agreed on the condition that I changed my major from science to ANYTHING ELSE.

It was a big blow to my ego that I was no longer a science major; after all, I (started to) kick butt in difficult science courses. I mean, who takes another science as an elective for the hell of it?

I do. It was marine biology and my teacher, Mr. Guardino, was awesome even if he turned in the letter of recommendation to USF late. I still got in. I still graduated. I still got a master’s from there.

But I was grateful for the chance to prove to myself that I could finish. It was by chance that a friend of mine suggested I teach a summer program for kids at the elementary school near campus.

What? Kids? Gross.

Ah, famous last words.

I enjoyed picking these kids’ brains while making it seem like they were the ones guiding the direction of the class. Teaching and working with children just came easily to me.

Writing also came easily to me when I was younger. I loved reading everything from magazines to Sweet Valley High so I thought the only thing better than consuming these literary works of art was creating them.

Like most parents, my father did not think I should become a writer because I wouldn’t be able to get a job after college. You know how on The Cosby Show, Theo got busted for bad grades and gave a touching monologue about how he wasn’t going to college to get a job but rather an education and his father totally called bullshit on him? Yep, same concept with my dad.

I started writing again when I became a stay at home mom. I wrote A LOT. Like, a lot a lot.

I was hired to be a columnist for a now defunct children’s magazine. I reviewed CDs and DVDs, including Tenatious D before anyone had ever heard of Jack Black and won best article of true year for that site. I attended writing conferences, met the illustrators Diane and Leo Dillon, had a bagel with Jane Yolen, and introduced my son to the author and illustrator of Hugo Cabret! One of the authors even told me twice to get in touch with her agent after I pitched a YA story I was working on. I published a poem through Cricket Media, and even had the chance to interview Travis from Blink 182 and Steve from Blue’s Clues!

But I got scared. Everything moved so fast.

Too fast.

There isn’t a moment that I don’t regret not taking my shot. (Yes, that’s a Hamilton reference.)

So now, I feel like it’s time. Little signs to go for it are everywhere in the form of encouragement from friends and my husband. Reminders of what I could have been doing RIGHT NOW. I’m finding all of my personal rejection forms, my old manuscripts, everything.

If I really didn’t want to do this, I would have gotten rid of it years ago.

But I didn’t.

In one notebook and a file folder, I found two separate collections of poems, three outlines for YA/MG novels, four picture book manuscripts, and two unfinished YA manuscripts! I found three poems to revise and polished them with fresh yet wiser eyes.

Like this:

My first teaching job was terrifying. Back in the 90s you didn’t even need a teaching credential, an emergency credential sufficed. I was in the middle of my teacher ed program and didn’t even have student teaching under my belt. Still, that did not stop me from working as a teacher at the age of 23!

Almost two decades later and I can’t believe how much time has passed. Even with eight years behind me, I still feel like a new teacher.

Nothing is set in stone yet but I’m mostly sure I’ve still got a teaching position in the fall. I am very excited to share some moments from a teacher workshop. See if you can figure out what we were studying…

My mom watched the kids since R was at school and the workshop was in the evening. They certainly got a kick out of these pics and wanted to know which ones were coming home with me!

Sadly I broke the news that the animals and plants belonged to the college lab.

My mom was fully disgusted by this little leech since it reminded her of navigated rivers when she was a little girl in the Philippines! I can’t even imagine! I did pick up that little guy (okay, it was a dare from my esteemed colleagues) but it never latched on. Blecch.

P.S. I would never hold a tarantula. At least not that size anyway. That spider’s a fake!

Hope you enjoyed your Halloween festivities! Our house goes all out for Halloween because

1. I’m an October baby and why yes, I am 257 years old this year.

2. I have a knack for after-holiday sales. I love cutesy decor and coffee mugs but I don’t like paying full price.

I dressed up for passing out candy because I don’t want to be recognized! I’m in the business of educating children, not being liked. That said, I’m pretty sure there are kids and teens out there who would love the chance to take out their frustration in the form of toilet papering my house.

Most of the time though I had to take of my mask because I was groaning and hissing– too scary for tiny toddlers trick or treating for the first time this year. Still, I was recognized halfway through the evening: “Aren’t you a teacher at…?” Gah! Busted!

Trick or treating was dead on our street (no pun intended). Most of the neighborhood kids are now in high school and our cul de sac backs up to a busy major street. Halloween was on a Saturday this year so most families probably went to parties in other neighborhoods or towns.

I spent the evening watching Doctor Who

and Pitch Perfect 2.

That’s not beer! That’s a Coke Zero!

I told my family that I was going to meet them at church this morning but time got the best of me. I thought I was going to be in and out of our neighborhood Target in no time flat but dammit if there weren’t already stay-at-home moms in line at the doors before they even opened! Damn you, SAHMS!

[NOTE: I love stay-at-home moms. I was one for many years and have proven that I can’t hang with you lot time and time again. The use of the term SAHM is not intended to offend but rather for humor only. No one messes with the SAHMs in my neighborhood!]

Rather than rush in and interrupt mass, I will sit this one out and stay in the moment.

I started my job teaching PE this week (I teach part time in 3 month-long blocks) and I am sore!

I wish I could say that I’ve been keeping up with exercise since I taught in August but lie detector tests would determine that was a lie.

Monday was my first day and it felt like I was hit like a ton of bricks. I know that is just an expression but after dancing for six hours with no previous weight training or stamina building exercises, it was as if I was dropped repeatedly onto a pile of bricks.

I can’t complain for too long though because this is a pretty sweet gig. This week, we (and by we, I mean the entire school of nine hundred students) are learning the choreography for Michael Jackson’s Thriller for a school-wide flash mob on Friday! I won’t be able to post videos or pics for privacy but there might be a pic of my own kids I could use.

My son took a class on video production last year and he helped me put these videos together. Working with him was like nothing I had ever experienced. He is extremely dedicated to his craft, a perfectionist with a one track mind, and very passionate about art direction. I can’t tell if he’s me or my husband!

You are welcome to share or use these videos to create your own flash mob. Please send me a link if you can. I would greatly appreciate it.

When I decided to show one class the tutorial, they were so excited! Some wanted to know if it was on YouTube and I had to say no… Because the YouTube channel was my personal channel. Not that my stuff is NSFW but my kids are in some silly videos and I didn’t want other kids to make fun of them. I made other goofy videos from comic conventions I attend and some of the panel discussions are inappropriate. So I spent all day trying to erase the electronic footprint that I have created without regard that someday I would need to change ALL OF MY PRIVACY SETTINGS.

With Halloween and my job starting up again, I’ve decided to go for it.

I’m going to teach my entire school how to dance to Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

Well, not the exact choreography because it is very complex. I can’t teach something I don’t understand myself.

I took a handful of the most well-known moves and made a routine. Wanna see the tutorial?

Too bad. I haven’t created one yet. Don’t worry. You’ll be the first to know.

I will leave you with a few pics from the Sinister Creatire Con last weekend. Why yes, that stunning woman is amazing!

And don’t forget Kristin Bauer, of True Blood and Once Upon a Time. She’s pretty awesome too.

Here are some of the cast members of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. See if you recognise them. They were hilarious and I’m not at all offended that they swore in front of my child. It’s an honour, really.